Published May 30, 2016
Six years removed from reporting, writing, blogging and in other ways committing journalism about college baseball, I enjoy being reminded of how fun and exciting it can be, especially when a game ends on a play at home plate. In this case, more than a game ended — so did an impressive streak.
For the first time since 1995, Rice University failed to win either its conference’s regular-season championship or tournament championship. That includes parts of Rice’s time in the Southwest Conference, the Western Athletic Conference and Conference USA.
The runner representing what would have been the tying run was thrown out at the plate in a final putout from center fielder to shortstop to first baseman to catcher, or as written in the scorebook, 8-6-3-2. The University of Southern Mississippi celebrated its Conference USA tournament championship after the game-ending play.
It should not surprise anyone who’s followed Rice baseball for more than a few games that the Owls took the risk of trying to score the tying run on the play. That’s how Wayne Graham has always done it — whether at practice or in the coaches box at third base, waving home the runner. “Make the defense make a play,” he’s said numerous times, knowing that in college baseball, solid defense is a luxury, not standard equipment for most teams. “Make them make the throws.”
He said that during the 2005 super regional at Tulane University in New Orleans after seeing the gamble fail, and he said it before and after that, after seeing it pay off. The play Sunday required three throws — the first two to cutoff men, and the third to the catcher — in a “double cut” executed to perfection by Southern Miss. Otherwise, Rice’s streak would have survived another year.
Graham is one of my favorite college baseball coaches. He’s won far more games and gambles than he’s lost, as evidenced by his career 1,111-464 won-lost record. A former professional baseball player, he played briefly for the New York Mets when they were managed by Casey Stengel, and for the Philadelphia Phillies when they were managed by Gene Mauch. Graham won a national championship in 2003, Rice’s first in any sport, and keeps coming back year after year to coach the game his way. Even at 80 years old.
Rice lineup card from April 6, 2005 (click on image to enlarge)
A trained draftsman, Graham takes great care in filling out his lineup card for a game. His printing looks almost too good to be from human hands rather than a machine, and if he messes up at any point, he tears up the paper and starts over. That’s what he told me years ago; I assume nothing has changed.
His meticulous nature first caught my eye when I saw a lineup card before a 2002 postseason game. Three years later, I asked if I could have one as a keepsake. I dug it out of a filing cabinet today after hearing about Rice’s streak ending Sunday.
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My favorite Wayne Graham story is about him as a person, not a coach. In June 2002, with his program one year away from a national championship, Rice shut out LSU twice at Reckling Park in Houston to end a best-of-three series after two games and advance to the College World Series. A little more than a month later, LSU third baseman Wally Pontiff Jr. died of a heart abnormality, found in his bed one morning by a family member.
Graham got to know Pontiff during that super regional, including the 16 innings when Graham was coaching at third base and Pontiff was a few feet away, playing defense. Pontiff raised eyebrows and drew derisive comments from Rice fans after the first game, a 6-0 Rice victory, when he told reporters at a press conference that LSU had the Owls “right where we want ’em.” Graham understood that as the kind of statement a team captain would make, hoping to inspire teammates who faced a win-or-go-home game the next day.
Led by a strong pitching performance by Justin Crowder, Rice won the next day, 3-0, and headed to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. Pontiff, a junior, headed to the Cape Cod League. There, he later cut his summer season short to return to New Orleans and focus on making a decision about whether to sign a contract with the Oakland A’s — who drafted him (and Crowder) a few days before the start of the super regional at Rice — or return to LSU for his senior season.
He died before making his decision public, if he had even made it yet. He was 21.
Graham, touched by the unexpected death and moved by his fondness for Pontiff, Reckling Park’s third base, the gathering place where they had talked about baseball and other things on those two hot, muggy days in Houston, and presented it to the Pontiff family.
The family launched the Wally Pontiff Jr. Baseball Classic in 2004, and the next year, in its first opportunity to accept an invitation to what became an annual fundraiser, Rice made the trip to play against LSU — in a New Orleans suburb, not far from the Pontiff home. The Rice lineup card above is from that night.
After hearing about the way Rice’s streak ended Sunday and watching the video, I checked the bracket for the NCAA Division I baseball tournament and saw that Rice will be playing in the Baton Rouge Regional at LSU’s Alex Box Stadium. That gave me a smile and a warm feeling that was just the right tonic on a day that has been filled with remembrances of people who have died — members of the armed forces, friends, a former co-worker (four years ago Sunday), and now, Wally. The last two were shocking, unexpected heart-related deaths.
Rice and LSU have played against each other several times since the second Wally Pontiff Jr. Baseball Classic, including an LSU super regional victory at home in 2009 on its way to its sixth national championship. In my mind, it’s a friendly rivalry. I trust that, when they are not rooting for their Tigers to defeat Rice, assuming the two teams face each other this weekend, LSU fans will remember Graham’s gentlemanly, sportsmanlike gesture of respect and goodwill toward the Pontiff family after Wally’s death 14 years ago.